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On the 118th anniversary of the first order issued by a government in India to implement reservations in state services, we republish a letter the issuer of that order, Shahu of Kolhapur, wrote to Lord Sydenham, former governor of the Bombay Presidency, explaining why caste-based reservations were an absolute necessity

These are marriages between two people of the same caste, arranged by family cops – parents, elders, uncles, aunts, and distant relatives – who want to ensure that the caste bloodline remains ‘pure’ and is not contaminated by the impure blood of lower castes, or, god forbid, blood of those castes formerly known as Untouchables, writes Suraj Yengde

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Here is a historical piece of writing by India’s first female Dalit writer Mukta Salve. At the time of writing this essay, she was merely 14 years old and a student at the school run by Jotirao and Savitribai Phule

Savitribai Phule’s letters are still relatively unknown. They demonstrate her concerns for society, love for humanity, revolt against injustices, anger against the casteist mindset and hope for building an egalitarian society, writes Siddharth

A. K. Biswas unearths from 19th century Bengal the life and battle of Dayamoyee, an illiterate ‘untouchable’ widow. She fought a relentless legal battle against the brahmanical feudal system that had already permeated into the halls of justice

V. Geetha writes that Periyar held that annihilation of caste would necessitate ‘the abolition of God, Religion, Shastras and Brahmins’. He also attacked patriarchy and ‘Brahmin nationalism’ in pursuit of true human freedom

History bears witness to the fact that Dalit Literature had emerged in Maharashtra well before 1950. Built on an ideological foundation substantiated by Dr B.R. Ambedkar, Dalit Literature is today said to be posing a challenge to mainstream literature. How did Dalit Literature undergo this metamorphosis? J.V. Pawar, a co-founder of Dalit Panthers, has the answer

On 15 March 1947, Dr Ambedkar gave a memorandum to the Constituent Assembly for implementing “state socialism” through the Constitution. He wanted the Indian Constitution to mandate the nationalization of industry, agriculture, land and insurance, and collectivization of farming. But the Constituent Assembly did not let this happen, writes Kanwal Bharti

In the preface to his latest book, Mohandas Namishray traces the history of the modern Indian press starting with its founder, James Augustus Hicky. While lamenting today’s page-3-type reporting, he hails the path-breaking journalism of Dr B.R. Ambedkar that awakened and educated the oppressed, he himself included